West 4th Avenue sewer and water reconstruction project

City crews are working to upgrade the water and sewer lines along a section of W 4th Avenue.

Location

1400 - 2400 block W 4th Ave (from Granville St to Balsam St)

2800 - 3500 block W 4th Ave (from Macdonald St to Collingwood St)

Expected duration

Start: Monday, Jan 31, 2013

End: Friday, July 12, 2013

Hours of work

Monday through Saturday, 7:00am to 5:00pm

Status

Completed

Impacts to traffic, parking, and businesses

Traffic on W 4th Avenue will not be closed during construction, though you can expect traffic delays. Inside of construction zones traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction.

Access to businesses will be maintained at all times.

Temporary parking restrictions will be removed as soon they no longer needed.

Some construction may be done on the weekend as required.

How this project will improve the city

The current sewer system at West 4th Avenue (from Collingwood to McDonald & Yew St to Granville Street) is over 100 years old and needs to be replaced.

Most of Vancouver's original sewer system was constructed using "combined" sewers (a single pipe in the street that carries both storm water runoff and sewage). Athough this was standard practice in many cities throughout North America, this type of system is prone to causing the sewage to backup into homes and to overflow into surrounding water bodies during periods of heavy rainfall.

In the early 1970s, Vancouver implemented a policy of replacing the combined system with a separated system when the old combined pipes wear out. A separated system was two pipes in the ground. One carries sewage and the other carries storm water. This is a much superior system, as it significantly reduces the chance of sewage backing up into homes and eliminates sewage overflow into the environment.

Once the sewer and water utilities on West 4th Avenue has been rebuilt, they are expected to serve the neighbourhood for another 100 years.